The savior of Balboa Park

Irwin Jacobs, the Qualcomm corporate founder and San Diego’s uberphilanthropist, is coming to the rescue again, this time to save Balboa Park.

As reported by the U-T’s Roger Showley on Friday, Jacobs is meeting with directors of park institutions and others to discuss an exciting new plan to deal with the cars that are now choking the core of the park – the Plaza de Panama – and turning it into something more akin to a downtown intersection at rush hour than a great public plaza.

Jacobs’ plan, developed by well-known engineering and construction experts who know a thing or two about grand design, would divert traffic coming off the Cabrillo Bridge on the park’s west side through the existing parking lot behind the Alcazar Garden and House of Charm to a new 800-space garage, partially below street level and covered with lawn, replacing an existing 300-space parking lot directly behind the Organ Pavilion.

Jacobs projected it would cost some $30 million, financed entirely with private donations, including, of course, from himself. A key element is that he intends to have the project completed by the 2015 centennial of the Panama-California Exposition, one of the landmark events in the history of Balboa Park.

Getting vehicles out of the heart of the park has been a goal of many people for many years. Like everything else, it has always been a matter of money. Mayor Jerry Sanders renewed it as a civic goal in his State of the City address in January and now Jacobs has taken up the cause.

There is still much to be done before it is reality. But if anyone can make it happen it is Irwin Jacobs.